Presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaks to Brown Co., Ohio Republicans at the annual Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner. Photo credit: Big 3 News

Armed with soaring poll numbers, a surprise endorsement from one of the state’s top officials, and a pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution, presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Friday urged Republicans in Brown County, Ohio to support his campaign and not to repeat the mistake of 2008 when voters helped elect President Barack Obama.

“No one’s asking for your life, no one’s asking for your fortune,” Santorum said. “But I am asking you to put your honor on the line. The honor of the family that you now represent in the line of ancestors who did their duty to give you the country that we have today.”

“The forefathers of this town and this county who built where you’re standing here, they sacrificed, they kept the flame of freedom burning,” Santorum said as he looked out at the crowd. “If we are not successful here in Ohio in winning this election in 2012, then I fear this flame will diminish to the point of it being extinguished.”

High turnout

An estimated 750 people turned out at Georgetown Elementary School to hear Santorum

Santorum was the keynote speaker at the Brown County Republican Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner in Georgetown, Ohio.

The $35 per plate annual fundraiser gave the party faithful a chance to meet candidates for local and state offices.

Brown County, a rural, agricultural area in southwestern Ohio, has a strong base of conservatives along the Appalachian highway corridor and is the heart of Ohio’s Bible belt.

The event, first scheduled for the Eagles Hall, was moved to the Georgetown Elementary School due to high interest. An estimated 750 people showed up, nearly triple what local organizers first expected.

Brown County Republican Chairman Paul Hall said it was remarkable the way Santorum kept his commitment to speak to the group.

“Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R-OH2) called and said we need a delegate for Rick Santorum, and (vice-chairman) Mariah Votel said, ‘Hey, I’ll do this.’”

Votel, who had Santorum’s cell phone number, called him the day after he won the Iowa caucus and asked him to speak at the party’s Feb. dinner.

“That would be a good thing,” Santorum said. “We ought to make that happen.”

After three solid wins in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota, Santorum’s campaign staff wanted him to visit a more urban Ohio area where the turnout would be higher.

“I think it speaks very highly of him, that he chose a county of less people — he could have had a crowd of 2,000 in Hamilton County, he chose to come here with 750 people — because of the fact that he gave his word that he would try to make it happen,” Hall said. “I think we need to put a man back in Washington, D.C. that stands behind his beliefs. He is a man of integrity, he is a man of character and he is a man of pleasing God.”

“I was wrong”

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine & his wife Fran

In a surprise announcement, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine threw his support to the Santorum campaign after initially endorsing Mitt Romney.

“Rick Santorum is a true conservative, he’s a man of great principle,” said DeWine, who traveled to the event with Santorum and was accompanied on stage by his wife Fran. “Originally, a number of months ago, I endorsed Gov. Romney. I did so because I thought he had the best chance of winning against Barack Obama. I was wrong. I’ve changed my mind.”

DeWine said Santorum is the man to lead the Republican party to victory in the fall and send President Obama home.

“Several things have become abundantly clear. One is, while the governor is a nice person, he can’t win in the fall. It has also become abundantly clear who can, and that is Rick Santorum. Rick shares our passion against Obamacare. He really is the person who can win in the fall.”

The issues

Santorum is riding a wave of popularity in Ohio polling with just over two weeks until primary voting on Mar. 6. Real Clear Politics has Santorum up 7 points in an average of all the polls. His largest advantage comes in a Rasmussen Poll where the candidate has an 18-point lead over his Republican primary opponents.

Interestingly, the names of Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul were not mentioned during his hour-long remarks which he delivered without a teleprompter. Santorum focused mainly on economic and social issues in an area hit hard by job losses and the federal government’s continued assault on religion.

“I’ve laid forth a plan on how we’re going to transform this economy,” Santorum said. “First, cutting $5 trillion over five years, spending less money each year than the year before. I’ve laid out a plan to get this economy growing — not the public sector economy, the private sector economy. We laid out a plan to throw out the old tax code and replace it with two rates and five deductions, simple.

“Second, we take the corporate tax and really help small businesses. The government is suffocating businesses. I take the corporate tax and cut it in half, make it a flat tax. Everybody pays the same, big and small.”

Tea Party nod

Santorum devoted nearly twenty minutes to defining his passion about the importance of American exceptionalism and the historical documents the nation was founded upon.

“I believe America was founded great,” Santorum said to strong applause. “I carry around my Constitution of the United States, and then I always know when there are Tea Party people around.

“Thank you for re-energizing America’s consciousness with respect to the Constitution,” he continued. “The Constitution is the owner’s manual, the operator’s manual, of America. It is how we are to run our government.

“But as any good Tea Partier knows, the Constitution by itself is insufficient, because it doesn’t provide the why, it doesn’t provide who we are. That is provided in America’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence.”

Watch the full speech from Big 3 News:

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